Hooters at the Wharf -- there goes the neighborhood? / Politically incorrect restaurant inspires debate over area's character

Published 4:00 am, Tuesday, May 20, 2003

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Event on 5/14/03 in San Francisco. John Trani (L), director of operations; Craig Malcom, general manager; and Lindsey Stewart, recruiter; look over construction plans for the soon-to-open Hooters in San Francisco. The 330-restaurant chain is perhaps best-known for calling its female servers "girls'' and asking them to wear tight-fitting tank tops and shorty-shorts. It is about to open its first franchise in Northern California next month on Fisherman's Wharf, 2800 Leavenworth Street. CHRIS STEWART / The Chronicle less

Event on 5/14/03 in San Francisco. John Trani (L), director of operations; Craig Malcom, general manager; and Lindsey Stewart, recruiter; look over construction plans for the soon-to-open Hooters in San ... more

Photo: CHRIS STEWART

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Photo: CHRIS STEWART

Hooters at the Wharf -- there goes the neighborhood? / Politically incorrect restaurant inspires debate over area's character

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2003-05-20 04:00:00 PDT San Francisco -- Tiffany McGowan was on her way to apply for a job at San Francisco's first Hooters restaurant when she leaned over to whisper a question. More of a worry, really.

"They don't discriminate against you if you don't, you know, have big . . . "said the 32-year-old McGowan, finishing her sentence with a gesture across her chest.

To the Hooters-illiterate, the 330-restaurant chain is perhaps best known for calling its female servers "girls" and asking them to wear tight-fitting tank tops and orange shorty-shorts last seen in the NBA, circa 1981. The chain, based in Georgia, is about to plant its first franchise in Northern California, a hype-meter debut ranking just below the Krispy Kreme red zone.

C'mon, said John Trani, director of operations at Hooters' San Francisco. "We're about so much more than this . . ." he said, finishing his sentence with a swipe across his chest.

What happens next month when this straight guy's fantasyland is scheduled to open on Fisherman's Wharf promises to tell several cultural as well as economic tales about San Francisco.

It begins with a company gutsy enough to open an 8,800-square-foot restaurant in a town that buried 7 percent of its eateries in just six months in 2001.

Situated on Leavenworth Street in the former Steelhead Brewery space next to In-N-Out Burger -- another auslander chain -- the Hoot squad is drawing an ambivalent reaction from its Fisherman's Wharf neighbors.

GOOD FIT AT WHARF?

While merchants hope it draws its typically big crowds to a tourist-starved city, some wonder if its dude-party vibe fits the Wharf's family atmosphere. And while fishermen say they'll be regulars, others worry that another chain on the Wharf threatens the neighborhood's mantra to "keep the fish at Fisherman's Wharf."

Hooters' secret weapon for overcoming these hurdles: It plans to be a friendly antithesis to San Francisco's storied sophistication. A good-timey, unabashedly politically incorrect oasis in p.c. land. A place that went to court to preserve its right to hire only women to be Hooters Girls. And prevailed.

Think pro wrestling and NASCAR-themed nights, fried and grilled food galore, and enough Bud flowing to choke all of Pacific Heights. Everything's brought to your table in what Hooters calls "hands-free service" -- that means you don't have to pour your own condiments -- by those inimitable Hooters Girls.

BUILT-IN AUDIENCE

"How many Boulevards and Waterfronts can one city support?" said Trani, referring to the high-end restaurants near the Embarcadero. "There's a lot of people out there -- union guys, construction guys, people you never hear about when they talk about San Francisco -- who will come to our place."

Some might figure that Trani has hit the dude lottery. A year ago, he graduated from Loyola Marymount University with a business degree. After he had searched for weeks for nonexistent jobs, his parents -- who own several fast-food outlets in the Central Valley -- ponied up the $75,000 franchise fee for a San Francisco Hooters, plus $40,000 to hold options on four other Bay Area Hoot-fests.

Trani shrugged at his good fortune. "It's a family business," said the 24- year-old. With his short, dark spiky hair and bowling shoe-chic footwear, he's about to graduate into the Hooters target market: men ages 25 to 54.

MINIMUM WAGE, GOOD TIPS

Six weeks before its anticipated opening, Hooters San Francisco has already fielded 100 applications for 100 full-time Hooters Girls. Wannabes have responded to flyers placed at "tanning salons, gyms, anyplace that women hang out," said general manager Craig Malcom, for jobs that pay minimum wage but could mean good tips.

The definitive Hooter Girl interview moment is how the interviewee responds when asked to tell a joke. It's graded not on content, but as a measure of how well the applicant will interact with customers during all that hands-free service time. "We're looking for the All American surfer-girl-next-door type," Trani said.

It's about personality. Not about, you know . . .

A day after ads were posted on the campus of progressive bastion San Francisco State University, "we had a bunch of girls show up from there," Trani said.

"My mom said, 'How are you going to go to church?' " said Jamelia Matier, a 24-year-old cosmetology student from Oakland who picked up an application recently. "But (the uniforms) are not something guys don't see every day. They're decent."

Several kitchen staff from the city's upper-end restaurants have applied to pick up a second job at Hooters; one already on board used to work at the former Restaurant 24 in Pacific Bell Park and McCormick & Kuleto's, Malcom said.

"They tell us that they're tired of being so worried about presentation, presentation, presentation," he said. "Here, you don't have to worry if your artichoke syrup is dripped just right on the plate."

Word around Fisherman's Wharf is mixed about the Hootenanny. Trani first approached Pier 39 about a spot there, but "we felt that it did not fit our family profile of visitorship," said Pier 39 spokeswoman Alicia Vargas. "But we wish them luck."

At the Cannery shops, signs boast of the shopping center's "graceful archways not golden arches," and add, "At the Cannery, we are not interested in chain stores or restaurants."

Those who love the city wonder what Hooters will contribute to its character. "When you come to San Francisco, you want to see things that you can only see in San Francisco," said Chad DeYoung, 32, a former resident who was visiting the Wharf with a friend -- because she wanted to see the tourist mecca. "You can see a Hooters anywhere."

But some of the guys who work on the docks will be there. "Will fishermen want to see women in skimpy dresses?" Jason Russey, 24, said from the deck of the touring boat he works on. "What do you think?"

WON'T RAISE EYEBROWS

While Hooters outlets have stirred controversy in more conservative towns, even critics doubt they'll raise an eyebrow in a city where nude activists spell "Make Love Not War" on the beach and "Puppetry of the Penis" played in the theater district. Sans shorty shorts.

In fact, some think Hooters may inspire a new sort of economic engine for the city: guilt.

Larry Limon, manager of the nearby Endangered Species Store, envisions men stopping by after downing a couple of beers. "They'll start to think about their wives and feel guilty. Then they'll come into my store and want to buy them a stuffed animal. You know, a guilt gift."

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